The historic house and surrounding buildings, including staff cottages and stables, were undergoing complete renovation and as part of the project it was decided that the estate’s previous reliance on fossil fuels did not fit with the plans for the new works. A heating and hot water system was designed by the M+E consultants that would service the entire estate’s needs, served from a combined ground source heat pump (GSHP) and biomass boiler system. Due to the period nature of the buildings in question it was decided by the M+E consultants that there would be two separate circuits distributed around the estate from the energy centre. One, fed by the GSHPs, would provide heat for the underfloor heating sections of various buildings and the swimming pool heating. The other, fed by biomass boilers, would provide heat for the radiator systems and domestic hot water systems.
Isoenergy were engaged on an install-only basis on this particular project and worked with a number of contractors on site to deliver the turnkey energy centre. The location of the energy centre, in close proximity to another property, meant that both plant rooms had to be acoustically enclosed to meet strict noise emission restrictions added as part of the planning process. This reduced access into the plant room and as the acoustic panelling had to be made to order, precise detailing in the design was required to ensure that drawings and reality correlated. Inside the plant room Isoenergy installed 2 x 90kW GSHPs, supported by 30 boreholes 215m deep and 3 x 160kW biomass wood pellet boilers, fed from a custom built two-storey pellet store.
Isoenergy chose to work with long-term partner, Synergy Boreholes, for the borehole element of this project due to their expert knowledge and the drilling depths required. Due to the borehole depth and the variable geology it made for a very challenging site but Synergy managed to deliver the 6.4km of boreholes required, on time and on budget. Viessmann were chosen for the GSHPs due to their superior commercial range of ‘Vitocal 300G Pro’ units, of which Isoenergy are now the largest installer of in the UK. The biomass boilers were specified as Hoval pellet boilers from their BioLyt range. These boilers were chosen due to their compact size and the limited plant room space available, plus they have the option of adding ceramic filters to the flue system to dramatically reduce the emissions from the boilers into the atmosphere.
With 660kW of plant capacity installed in the energy centre it is believed that this is one of the largest combined GSHP and biomass systems in the UK. Isoenergy’s expertise with installing large capacity systems, in both residential and commercial buildings, is the reason that clients and contractors select us to handle all aspects of any renewable installations.
R.W.Armstrong said “We only work within the high-end residential sector, and isoenergy consistently meet our clients’ high expectations. We have worked successfully with isoenergy for many years. Their extensive knowledge, high standard of installation and aftercare service sets them apart from the rest.”